Unicorn Forest Swamp Illustration
My goal was to create children’s book style forest illustration, featuring my favorite mythical creature.
This illustration project was meant to expand my illustration toolbox. I love children’s book style illustrations and wanted to create a magical landscape to home some stylized unicorns I’ve been doodling for quite a while.
Thumbnail and foliage explorations were the first step in creating this Unicorn illustration. These explorations allowed me to establish a look and feel while exploring different methods of rendering the image.
From my thumbnails, I created a detailed line drawing and mapped out my planes as flat layers to give me the room to explore color and mood easily.
I chose a base color palette early on in my process and experimenting with different lighting and moods. I captured the color palette and how I used each supplemental color for light and shading later on.
The final image foliage changed from what I had originally sketched out, but the smaller mushrooms and plants allowed to focus to remain on the main attraction - a unicorn sunbathing in a magical swampy forest.